When the No. 4 seed and 22 year old Spanish tennis player, Garbiñe Muguruza woke up this morning, she would’ve known that one of two things was going to happen today – she would either be crowned as the 2016 French Open Ladies Singles Champion or she would’ve been a part of history, watching the defending champion and No. 1 seed, Serena Williams from America clinch her 22nd Grand Slam Ladies Singles title to equal Steffi Graf’s record.
There was no pressure on the Spanish player, who apart from dropping a set in her first round match against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, was not tested by any of the other five opponents that she faced en route to the final, a group that included the likes of the 2009 champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova and the 2010 finalist, Samantha Stosur.
On the other side of the court, there was tremendous pressure on Serena Williams, who I’m sure would just like to get this 22nd Grand Slam Singles title under her belt now. The American has looked rather shaky since her Quarter-final match against Yulia Putintseva and having played four matches in four consecutive days, could certainly not have helped her cause.
So when the two players walked onto Court Philippe Chatrier this afternoon, the expectations were high and the crowd was divided.
In a closely contested first set, Williams started off well and seemed to regain the control that was missing in her last two matches. Muguruza didn’t show any sign of nerves and forced Williams into making several mistakes. Muguruza’s breakthrough came in the fifth game when Williams served a double fault. Williams broke back in the eighth game with Muguruza breaking in the eleventh. Muguruza just edged past Williams in the twelfth game with a backhand winner to take the set.
Muguruza broke the Williams serve in the opening game of the second set. It then seemed as though she may for a fleeting moment, have seen the finish line ahead of her and tightened up as she proceeded to serve three double faults and allowed Williams to break right back. Muguruza immediately composed herself and broke back the very next game and from then on, despite a valiant effort from Williams in trying to claw her way back, which included holding serve during a 10 minute ninth game and Billie Jean King doing her best to encourage her from the stands, much to the delight of Todd Martin sitting next to her, Muguruza remained composed and served out the set and match with another backhand winner. The final score was 7-5 6-4.
The stunned crowd paid tribute to Williams with an extended applause when she went up to receive her runner-up trophy. So many had hoped to be a part of Grand Slam history today.
Whilst Garbiñe Muguruza basks in French Open glory and will move up to No. 2 on Monday, when the latest WTA rankings are released, Serena Williams will put this loss firmly behind her and now set her sights on Wimbledon.